What are the symptoms of acute gouty arthritis?

Gout is a common rheumatic bone disease that has a significant impact on patients' health and quality of life. It may even cause unbearable pain to patients. So what are the early symptoms of gout?

1. Gout often attacks suddenly without any warning signs. It mainly occurs at night, and patients will be awakened by sudden joint pain. Its signs are similar to those of acute infection, including swelling, local heat, redness, and obvious tenderness. The local skin is tense, hot, shiny, and dark red or purple in appearance. The metatarsophalangeal joint of the big toe is most commonly affected (foot gout), and the arch of the foot, ankle joint, knee joint, wrist joint and elbow joint are also common sites of disease. Systemic manifestations of the patient include fever, palpitations, chills, malaise, and leukocytosis.

2. In the first few attacks of gout, usually only one joint is affected and generally only lasts for a few days, but later it may invade multiple joints simultaneously or successively. If untreated, it may last for several weeks. Finally, local symptoms and signs subside and joint function recovers. The length of the symptom-free interval varies greatly, becoming shorter as the disease progresses. If not prevented, attacks can occur several times a year, leading to chronic joint symptoms and permanent, destructive joint deformities.

3. In the chronic stage, the deposition of sodium urate in the joints gradually increases, the attacks become more frequent, the intervals between attacks shorten, the number of affected joints increases, the pain intensifies, and the bone ends of the joints are destroyed and proliferated. If the inflammation cannot completely subside, tophi will appear. Tophi are more common in the joints and kidneys. They can also appear in the helix of the external ear, metatarsophalangeal, interphalangeal and metacarpophalangeal joints. As tophi continue to accumulate and increase, they lead to joint hypertrophy, deformity, stiffness and limited movement.

Warm reminder: Learn more about gout symptoms, detect the disease early and receive treatment early to avoid worsening of the disease and affecting your work and life. More importantly, do not let the disease damage your physical and mental health.